services were held by those in authority was expressed when he was offered a position in the regular army of the United States. When he returned to the peaceful pursuits of private life he not only retained the affections of his comrades in arms, but he won the good will of all
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men and he commanded an influence that was felt wher- ever he was known. No man is perfect, but my friendship for Captain Zoeller has placed a high estimate on his character, and I believe that when his life's record is closed few blemishes will appear to mar the purity of his existence.
I returned immediately to my father's farm, where I received an affectionate welcome from my people and neighbors. I had been absent from home nearly three years, and many changes had occurred during that period, but none had taken place in my father's family. After spending two pleasant months among my old associations, I became restless and anxious for some active employment. As mail contracts were then being let in Texas, I filed an application for the route from San Antonio to Eagle Pass and from there to Fort Clark. My bid was accepted by the Post Office Department and in January, 1866, a contract was awarded me.
CHAPTER V
I WAS not quite twenty-one years of age when I secured a contract to carry the United States mail from San Antonio to Eagle Pass and that from Eagle Pass to Fort Clark. The length of the first route was one hundred and sixty-two miles, and I was required to make the round trip once every six days. The post offices were Castroville, New Fountain, D'Hanis, Sabinal, Uvalde and Eagle Pass, from which place the mail was carried to Fort Clark, a distance of fifty miles, by George Swanda, whom I hired for that purpose.
My outfit consisted of a three-seated hack, capable of carrying six persons, that was drawn by a pair of mules, which I drove myself. Stations were established at suitable distances, where I changed teams ; and as I had sublet the route to Fort Clark, Eagle Pass became the terminus of that under my immediate control.
My regular charge per seat, for a through passage, was twenty dollars, but it was seldom that all seats were occupied.
The road was always beset by many dangers, and I considered myself extremely fortunate after passing through them. The frontier was practically unprotected against the Indians who were then plentiful, and they made raids with impunity through Medina, Uvalde and Atascosa Counties, where they killed and plundered the people. The Eagle Pass and El Paso roads were continually infested by them, and those who traveled those routes always tempted Providence unless they were strong enough in numbers to resist an attack.
I often saw the trails of marauding parties of Indians
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where they crossed the road and have found the mutilated bodies of many men lying where they had been murdered. I frequently traveled the route alone, and it is remarkable that on such occasions I was never molested, and the exceptions were when I had one or more passengers in my coach. The risks were so great that business men would rarely travel the route alone, but formed parties of several who were well supplied with arms and ammunition.
On one of my trips in 1866, I was traveling westward entirely alone, and when about eighteen miles from Eagle Pass I drove into a camp, about three o'clock in the after- noon, where nine Mexican carts were standing by the road- side. The bodies of the drivers were scattered around where they had been killed and some of them scalped by Indians. Evidently the murders were committed not more than three hours before and apparently when the men stopped for dinner.
I did not waste much time making investigations after seeing that they were all dead, but hurried onward as fast as possible under a dread of the barbarians who might have lingered in that vicinity. I reported the tragedy to the authorities immediately after my arrival at Eagle Pass. The bodies were brought in that night and buried the following day in the public graveyard. One of the unfortunates was Felipe Calabera, a nephew of Jesus Calabera, who now lives on South Laredo Street in front of Emil Oppermann's store. If the Indians were followed I cannot recall the fact, but as such murders were frequent, and as it was not troublesome to find the perpetrators at any time, it is probable that no action was taken to have them punished.
The Indians sometimes were very bold, and on one of my trips to Eagle Pass, in 1866, they exhibited their adroitness as thieves in the vicinity, and the performance caused the good people of that town considerable inconvenience. It happened in connection with a patriotic
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occasion, on the 4th of July, when the citizens were en- joying themselves at a ball, that was given in honor of our national anniversary, to which everybody was invited.
The abandoned United States post, situated about half a mile south of town, that is known in history as Fort Duncan, was selected as a suitable place for the celebration, and .the hospital, with a floor space measuring about '30 x 100 feet, was chosen for dancing purposes. The arrangements were all perfected by Thomas B. McManus, the customs-house officer at Eagle Pass, with the assistance of Henry Bruhn, of San Antonio, the father-in-law of Otto Evert and Ed Galm of said city.
The Mexican customs-house officers from Piedras Negras, with their families, all the best people from Eagle Pass, and the settlements along the river were in attendance. Those who rode horseback secured the animals to the buildings or surrounding trees and gave them no further attention after joining in the dancing or other pleasures of the occasion. No apprehension of danger was entertained, and nothing occurred to mar the happiness of the evening that gave life to the old fort which caused it to resound with joyous mirth until the early tints of dawn admonished the participants to close their revels.
Those who first departed returned hastily and caused a scene of excitement by announcing that all the horses had disappeared except a few that were tied to the gallery posts of the building. The evidence was clear that the revelers had been made the victims of an Indian raid, and the impudent enterprise was shrewdly executed. The skulking savages only took advantage of the distracting incidents of the occasion, and without interrupting the festivities quietly left them to return to their homes on foot. They were less merciful to two poor Mexicans who left Eagle Pass that morning on an ox-cart with the intention of hauling wood, who were killed by them below town.
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Such audacity was exasperating, and Henry Bruhn immediately organized a party which started in pursuit of the Indians with a view to their chastisement. They were overtaken at El Canado, near the river, about eight miles above town, and a fight occurred in which two Mexicans were killed before the Indians retreated.
Another time, when returning from Eagle Pass in the early spring of 1867, Mr. Black, of Uvalde, and Angel Torres, of San Antonio, accompanied me as passengers, and Pablo Castro drove the hack. We were all well armed and had plenty of ammunition, but our journey was not interrupted until we reached a point about four miles west of Turkey Creek on the Eagle Pass road. We were in an open prairie, about four o'clock in the afternoon, when we saw a party of eleven Indians, whose movements indicated that we were in for a fight, and we prepared for trouble.
Perhaps they thought it would be an easy thing to take our scalps, and they charged toward us, uttering their terrific war-whoops, but their yells only frightened the mules, and Pablo had all he could do to keep them from running away. Black and myself took a position in front of the animals, but Torres stood alone near a crooked mesquite tree, and we waited until we could shoot with accuracy.
The Indians saw that the mules were frightened, and with the intention of stampeding them, they strung out in a circle, about two hundred and fifty yards distant from us, in which they rode singly about fifty yards apart. The movement was one in which they
